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rlUHP-(Jl’ THE UNBOHN (15) 87min 0.
Screw .‘xriter Dilll’l S (it/yer". literate .7an 9'. Christopher Nolan", fiat/nan 'ta', lt’tie relation to his .70"? here a‘, .'.'r:?e' and ’lll‘:’,l0l Hie Unborn a b; the numbers fright ill/,l‘ l:|‘:‘."€li‘:’l l}; a resonant grounding in .Jemuh ',iiperiiatiiral lore Player} tn '.'ariuus state, of undress by skinn, malink ()rlette ‘i/ustinau Came; Baldnn hem/es that he"; l)"lll(l haunted by a (1,! huk an evil spirit attempting tn
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as a portal tnln our .‘Jnilil (Jase. search tor more
int, "natinn leads her to Snli «Jane Al“l«lll(l(,‘ri. a (,(lll(,(,‘llll£lll()ll (:amgi
sur .’|‘.'()l who lll‘,()lll,‘T1(/\ilfllf,l tnenlist the areduluuf, Rabbi f‘enrlak it‘zaiy ()lilrnani to organise an abortive i:x()l',l‘)lll that unleashes the dyhhuk's ll'éll‘J illl(,‘ power in a display of absurd llnll'.‘.vnnd pyrotechnics.
(tr/.ei's penchant for spectacular aerial shots of Chicago attests; to Nolan's influence. but there's some flaw in his set pieces including an impressive hallucinatory sequence in a nightclub toilet that rips-off Pnlanskt's lie/)u’sio/i. And while Goyer's attem; )ts tn create gi'aVit)’ With allusi. ms to Auschwn/ is distasteful. the imagery associated with the dybhuk itself is rendered in (ll33(1()ll(ll?lllll(} style. making [he Unborn a small cut above most lnimula US horrors.
ll (l(ll(r Harrison) I (3enera/ release from ln 8/ r’ eh.
DRAM/Hi inii ll n GRAN TORINO (15) 116min 0000
Clint Eastwood attempts a light-hearted reproach to some of the more reactionary values of his previous films in this, his acting swansong.
Recently bereaved Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) lives in a Michigan neighbourhood dominated by immigrants. Walt, a Polish American war vet and lifetime Ford automotive assembly line worker is an old-fashioned patriot with a foul mouth and casually racist views. His nonchalant relationship with the Hmong (ethnic group from the mountainous regions of southeast Asia) family who live next door changes when he catches shy young Thao (Bee Vang) trying to steal his beloved vintage 1972 Gran Torino car. It turns out the boy was doing it as part of an enforced initiation into a local Hmong gang, so Walt agrees to let Thao do jobs around his house by way of apology. A friendship grows between Walt, Thao and Thao's feisty sister Sue Vang (Ahney Her) but the local Hmong gang soon comes knocking again for their pound of flesh.
Eastwood was undoubtedly attracted to Nick
DRAMA PARIS 36 (12) 120min 0.
Director Christopher Barratier had an enormous hit at the French box ottice in 2001 with The Chorus. a saccharine tale of an inspirational teacher at a reform school setting up a chow for the boys. Working now on a much bigger budget. Baii‘atier returns With Paris 36. a period muSIcal drama. which again comes coated in sentimentality and serves as a disappomting homage to Jean RenOir's 1936 The Crime of Mons‘ieur Lange.
The setting is a working class district of Paris during the economically depressed mid—1930s. Leon Blum's left-Wing Popular Front government has been elected and strikes. protests and rallies are sweeping the City. When the local music hall is closed down. its workers. led by veteran stage manager Pigoil (Gerard Jugnot). union organiser Milou (Clovis Cornillac‘i and impreSSionist Jacky (Kad Merad) decide to take over the building and put on their own productions.
In terms of nostalgic spectacle. Paris 36 is a diverting enough entertainment. thanks to the handsome widescreen Cinematography and imaginatively deSigned sets. even it engoyment is diluted by tedious subplots such as PigOil's efforts to be reunited with his accordion-playing son Joio. Look out though for newcomer Nora Arnezeder in the role of the ingenue chanteuse: her mice and screen presence Suggest that she c0uld be the next Marion Cotillard. (Tom Dawson)
I Fi/thL/se, Edinburgh from Fri 27 Feb-Thu 5 Mar. GFT Glasgow from Fri 73- Thu 26 Mar.
Schenk's first time screenplay for its resemblance to Don Siegel’s magnificent 1976 film The Shootist, a film that was to be John Wayne‘s last. As in that film, an aging hard man must resolve a violent conflict without encouraging a young man’s emulation of his gun-toting ways. Eastwood closes the door on his quintessential white American male persona in a film that is also rich in allusion to Shane and the spaghetti westerns that made his name (as the man with no name).
Deserving of that overused epithet ‘modern western' Gran Torino brings together the two disparate thematic strands that have run through Eastwood’s work, namely that of the reactionary avenger (Dirty Harry. High Plains Drifter, Heartbreak Ridge) and the endearing portraits of goofballs and flawed idealists (Bronco Billy, Honkytonk Man, White Hunter Black Heart). Though uneven and often lacking the subtlety we have come to expect from this prolific filmmaker, it is a film rich in allusion, pride and warm comedy, one anchored by the unequivocal presence of one of cinema’s greats, brilliant in a role he was always destined to play. (Paul Dale)
I Genera/ re/ease from Fri 20 Feb.
19 Feb—5 Mar 2009 THE LIST 43
.mm mm
5'71 1"